CONSTITUTION & RULES

Tent Pegging is one of the most popular equestrian sports and was particularly popular in the Indian sub-continent till the post war period. Although there is difference of opinion as to how and where it started, it is almost certain that tent pegging is a sport of Asian Origin. One source dates it back to the invasion of India by Alexander the Great in 326 B.C. which lends credence to the belief that the sport originated in the North Western province of India and Afghanistan through where Alexander had entered India.

The cavalry soldiers of Alexander were believed to have used Tent Pegging as a battle tactics against the elephants in the army of the Indian King Porus, who fought bravely against the invaders, lost the battle, but by virtue of his heroic demeanour, charmed Alexander, who returned to Porus his kingdom and made him his friend.

There is also a belief that the sport originated with the horse-mounted soldiers charging enemy camps at the crack of dawn removing the pegs which held the tents in place, with the tips of their sharp spear.

The sport got its first official recognition when the Olympic Council of Asia accepted Tent Pegging as an official event in the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games.